SAO PAULO IS A JUNGLE (TRANSLATION)

I haven’t been to Sao Paulo, the other Latin America megalopolis. It’s definitely in my future plans.

Wikipedia states that it is the largest city by population in the Americas edging out Mexico City although the order is reversed when the population of the metropolitan areas is counted.

The piece I have translated is by Joao Wainer, a Sao Paulo – based photographer, writer and filmmaker. It was part of an exhibition I visited in Valparaiso, Chile. The term Exus refers to spirits or deities of the Yoruba religion. See the link for more information.

Sâo Paulo is a jungle. On the hot asphalt of Latin America’s largest city the history of a country is being written.

During the day twenty million run blindly for gold, under the grey sky. In the early morning the streets are taken over by the “Exus” amusing themselves surfing between the boundaries of good and bad.

In the prisons, behind the bars, thieves and murderers rest their heads on the cells’ thin and dank mattresses and build their castles of freedom.

In the typical gambling den ham sandwiches are served without pause.

Whores, dealers, police, transvestites, cab drivers and all urban fauna are found in the most democratic vantage point of the city.

In the favelas the day starts before the night has finished.

Buses, full of workers, go up and down the Highway of Tears while the nightclubs still seethe under the influence of bullets on the tongue.

Sâo Paulo is my place. The city in which God is a 100 real bill. Be welcome.